Embodiments herein generally relate to systems, methods, services, etc. for providing navigation through urban environments and more particularly to a computerized device that can give ride-by-ride navigation instructions through different combinations of public transportation rides and pedestrian walkways.
The majority of conventional computerized navigation systems are designed for directing vehicles from a source to a destination based on a start address and an end address. Such conventional systems can also recalculate a route based on dynamic information such as a missed turn. Other systems are available for hikers which provide a general direction of travel needed to reach an input destination. For example, many different types of global positioning system (GPS) based navigation systems are currently available from manufactures such as Garmin, Ltd., George Town, Grand Cayman, Grand Cayman Islands, and Magellan Navigation, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., USA and details of such systems are not discussed in detail herein to allow the reader to focus on the salient features of embodiments herein.
However, such conventional systems are of little use to a pedestrian in a large city who is not driving a car or navigating a forest, but instead is traveling along sidewalks and riding on public transportation systems, such as busses, subways, and taxi cabs. Prior to embodiments herein in order to navigate the mass transit system(s) users had to be able to read maps of the transit routes and correlate them with street addresses. One problem encountered when navigating within urban environments is that large cities often have multiple mass transit systems (e.g. subway, busses, and ferries) and do not have a comprehensive or coordinates means to combine these routes to facilitate travel within the metropolitan area.
Therefore, the metropolitan navigation system disclosed herein incorporates a display/input device, a location sensor, urban environment maps, addresses of points of interest, and routes and schedules of a city's mass transit system. The embodiments herein have logic necessary to generate detailed directions to a user entered destination. The directions produced by embodiments here optimize the use of public transportation. Thus, the embodiments herein direct the user to the closest mass transit entry point and direct the user through the transit system to the location closest to the entered destination. Further, with certain embodiments herein, walking distances can be provided to allow the user to determine if alternative modes of transportation (e.g. taxi) are required. The disclosed metropolitan navigation system can be a hand held device, a cellular phone, a hosted web service, etc.
In one embodiment a desired destination is received from user input as the end location. The embodiments can determine the current position (the beginning location) based on automated positioning and/or user input. Thus, the embodiments can calculate potential routes from the beginning location to the end location and can select one of the potential routes (e.g., the best route). This selected route is output to the user.
The potential routes that are selected from comprise mass transit rides. Therefore, the embodiments herein are intended to primarily be used by urban foot travelers who walk through urban environments having public transportation systems (as contrasted with individuals traveling within personal automobiles or traveling by foot in rural or forested environments). Thus, for purposes herein, the “mass transit ride legs” comprise public and commercial bus ride legs, public and commercial train ride legs, public and commercial subway ride legs, public and commercial ferry ride legs, public and commercial taxi ride legs, motorized and unmotorized pedestrian walks and all similar forms of public transportation that one would find in common urban environments.
In addition, embodiments herein can output, to the user, ride-by-ride navigation while the user is traversing the selected route. This ride-by-ride navigation comprises route legs, wherein each route leg comprises a different ride leg of the mass transit ride legs. For purposes herein, a “different ride leg” comprises a subsequent ride leg which, when compared to a relatively prior ride leg, requires the user to physically move from one of the mass transit ride legs to a different one of the mass transit ride legs.
In other words, the “different ride leg” comprises a subsequent leg which, when compared to a relatively prior leg, comprises a subsequent public and commercial bus ride leg, subsequent public and commercial train ride leg, subsequent public and commercial subway ride leg, subsequent public and commercial ferry ride leg, subsequent public and commercial taxi ride leg, and/or subsequent motorized and unmotorized pedestrian walk that is different than a relatively prior public and commercial bus ride leg, prior public and commercial train ride leg, prior public and commercial subway ride leg, prior public and commercial ferry ride leg, prior public and commercial taxi ride leg, and/or prior motorized and unmotorized pedestrian walk. Thus, each different ride leg requires the user to change buses, trains, ferries, etc.; change from a bus route to a train route, walk between different types of mass transit rides, etc.
During the ride-by-ride navigation, the method dynamically recalculates the selected route based on the current position. Further, embodiments here can re-determine the current position based on intermittent automated positioning calculation and/or user input. In one embodiment, the ride-by-ride navigation can determining whether one route leg has been completed based on comparing an elapsed time with an average historical time for that route leg, which is useful if antenna based information is not available or user input is not forthcoming.
An apparatus version of embodiments herein includes a device that has a processor operatively (directly or indirectly) connected to a power supply, a memory, a graphic user interface, and an antenna. As would be understood by those ordinarily skilled in the art, the present embodiments are not limited to this specific structure. Instead, the structures discussed herein are merely examples used to illustrate features of the invention and all similar structures are encompassed by this disclosure.
The memory is adapted to store many items of information such as mass transit ride legs. As mentioned above, such mass transit ride legs comprise public and commercial bus ride legs, public and commercial train ride legs, public and commercial subway ride legs, public and commercial ferry ride legs, public and commercial taxi ride legs, motorized and unmotorized pedestrian walks, etc.
The graphic user interface is adapted to receive, as user input, a desired destination as the end location and the antenna is adapted to receive wireless positional information. This allows the processor to determine the current position as the beginning location (based on the wireless positional information received through the antenna or user input received through the graphic user interface). Further, the processor calculates potential routes made up of mass transit ride legs from the beginning location to the end location. The processor selects one of the potential routes as a selected route, automatically or based on user selection. The graphic user interface then outputs the selected route to the user.
Further, the processor is adapted to calculate ride-by-ride navigation while the user is traversing the selected route. Again, such ride-by-ride navigation comprises route legs, wherein each route leg comprises a different ride of the mass transit ride legs. The graphic user interface outputs the dynamic ride-by-ride navigation. During the ride-by-ride navigation, the processor is further adapted to dynamically recalculate the selected route based on the current position. The current position can be based on intermittent receipt of the wireless position information through the antenna or user input received through the graphic user interface.
These and other features are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description.